Charles Dickens

[ottovonbismarck]

Its no wonder they are giving them away.

Only oddballs enjoy wallowing in turgid Victorian squalor brought to them by a heavy hand dripping with maudlin sentiment and puerile characterizations.

You could do with a good ride. Your sexual frustration is evident to all of us in the trenches.

[Seanie Lemass]

RELAX---all you who are worrying about the poor school kids being tortured with inappropriate literature,....

No indeed, "classics" are not "forced" on schoolkids nowadays.

Harry Potter and Michael Morpurgo are read in First Year. Maeve Binchy in Fifth Year..... and in between there is Science Fiction and weird violent stories about warriors and mythical gothic heroes.....

You can get a A in Hons English at Leaving Cert without ever straying outside the late 20th Century (except for Shakespeare). You can do "Inside I'm Dancing" (young guys effing and blinding and seducing girls) or "Billy Elliot"as your film, "The Secret Life of Bees" as your novel, or "Lies of Silence" or "The Road"....or anything that takes your fancy really.....

No, don't be worrying about "the young". They're all quite safe from dangerous Victorian sentimentality. They spend their time much more productively on Facebook and playing video games.....

Maeve Binchy! I also believe that Roddy Doyle is there.......... sometimes there is an argument for facebook you know.

[Lonewolfe]

Maeve Binchy! I also believe that Roddy Doyle is there.......... sometimes there is an argument for facebook you know.

Horrendous shyte, as is Inside I'm Dancing.

Leaving Cert literature is out of touch and utterly boring on every level.

Of course auld Willy Shake is still in there.

But if you think the lit is bad you should see the poetry!

[statsman]

As ever a few nobodies on P.ie diss a great writer who's work will be read long after we are all gone.

My favourites are Great Expectations (which I read at the age of 12 in school and enjoyed), David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities.

I have just been given a Kindle reader as a present and I understand I can download these books for free

One of the great wonders of humanity is diversity of opinion; having one that differs from yours doesn't make someone a nobody.

Incidentally, when I started reading your comment, I thought it was about Joyce.

[statsman]

Just realised that I meant to mention Beckett's so-called trilogy Malloy/Malone Dies/The Unnameable. The best Irish fiction since Joyce, and, to please SeamusNapoleon, another good Protestant.

[Partizan]

Born 200 years ago today. Great timing for Fairhurst and Tomalin's biographies (why did I not think of that

A lot of coverage obviously but has he aged well?

In my opinion he still is one of the greatest writers in English and one of the few all of whose novels I have read, and some several times.

Does anyone else here still read him?

Absolutely love Dickens. Read Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and my favourite, Great Expectations. Hard Times although has some rich and colourful characters in it, is a bit overdone with the melodrama.

Great thread.

[Fides]

One of the great wonders of humanity is diversity of opinion; having one that differs from yours doesn't make someone a nobody.

Incidentally, when I started reading your comment, I thought it was about Joyce.

Actually what I meant was I'm a nobody too in comparison to Dickens achievements. I responded to a comment that basically said Dickens was rubbish and that anybody who read his work was an oddball. It is not the first time somebody on P.ie has had a good go at highly successful artists or writers or businessmen. I for example don't get Joyce but I'm not going to say his work is rubbish - his reputation goes before him.

[Seanie Lemass]

Just realised that I meant to mention Beckett's so-called trilogy Malloy/Malone Dies/The Unnameable. The best Irish fiction since Joyce, and, to please SeamusNapoleon, another good Protestant.

Love his plays and saw Krapps and Endgame last year in Gate. Found the trilogy to be hard going I have to say. Must try it again sometime.

By the by, I have decided to tackle Hardy this weekend. Spotted some of those cheap Wordsworth Classic editions in book shop other day. Not decided which one yet.

[Lonewolfe]

Love his plays and saw Krapps and Endgame last year in Gate. Found the trilogy to be hard going I have to say. Must try it again sometime.

By the by, I have decided to tackle Hardy this weekend. Spotted some of those cheap Wordsworth Classic editions in book shop other day. Not decided which one yet.

Good man Seanie. Try Far From the Madding Crowd - just briliant.

I'd like to hear what you think of it.

I agree with Partizan by the way - it's a great thread.

We should try to keep it going.

[Seanie Lemass]

Good man Seanie. Try Far From the Madding Crowd - just briliant.

I'd like to hear what you think of it.

I agree with Partizan by the way - it's a great thread.

We should try to keep it going.

Will get that today. Those cheap - but well produced - classics series are excellent. Have dozens of the old black penguin editions that were published in the 70s.